🔭 Wonderer’s Log #023: Expedition for Worth Beyond Exhaustion - Arc of Deliberate Becoming - Odyssey of the Wild Truth
This is where my mind, heart, and action converge - footprints on a shared journey.
So that together we can explore and share what it means to build a life both sovereign and sacred—unfinished, ambitious, and offered with care.
✨ Summary
This expedition was complex—a weave of burnout, brilliance, and breakthrough. I pushed through the fog to secure a meaningful opportunity while holding the weight of transitions. I cheered for others even as I dragged my own limbs forward. There were moments of grumpiness, of withdrawal, and glorious, unexpected spikes of joy—like watching a favourite band live or diving into the work of a friend. Somewhere in this swirling windstorm of input, emotion, and ambition, I rediscovered the strange alchemy of rest. I am not undone—I’m simply unfolding.
📚 Read / Listened To
🎧 The Tim Ferriss Show
(#811) 2x Olympic Archery Medalist Jake Kaminski — Lessons Learned and Mantras Used After 1,000,000 Arrows (Website or Spotify) - Finished.
(#812) The Random Show — New Health Gadgets, Tim’s Latest Adventures, How to Drink Less, Zen Retreats, AI + Your Genome, and Colonoscopy Confessions (Website or Spotify)
📖 This is Strategy by Seth Godin (Amazon) - Still Reading.
🗞️ Seth’s Blog - Seth Godin (Newsletter)
🗞️ 3-2-1 Thursday - James Clear (Newsletter)
🗞️ Brain Food - Shane Parris (Newsletter)
🗞️ A Smart Bear - Jason Cohen (Newsletter/Blog)
🗞️ Clearer Thinking (Newsletter)
🗞️ 5-Bullet Friday - Tim Ferriss (Newsletter)
🗞️ The Boonly (Newsletter)
🧭 Reflections
🗂️ From the Project Manager's Desk
"Hi Team, this week has been a bloody mess. It's not just what’s on top of you right now, but the weight of everything that has come up before. Please know, first and foremost, I appreciate the work you’ve done with planning, re-aligning, re-assessing, triaging, communicating, and executing the most important things for everyone.
This has been a really hard decision to make at times. You’ve prioritised personal rest over making more personal ground, that takes strength to allow in your current state. Not just that, you’ve allowed yourself to remain unattached as much as possible without losing trajectory or momentum—and that has benefited both you and your teammates.
For this, I and everyone around you are deeply grateful. You’ve worked on taming chaos while also building long-term stability, this has given you a base from which to support others as best as they’ve needed. You are appreciated more than I can put into words.
I feel like you can be trusted, are honourable, and truly kind—I don’t have to be concerned about whether you’ll be there for me or for us. I believe it without hesitation. That trust is earned through your constant expansion to include me, us, the team, and our mission to make the world a better place.
I can see you are struggling. Know that I appreciate everything you sacrifice, even if it’s required to progress. You will always be revered here.
💬 Advice from My Best Friend
“Hey Mate. Gosh, another week—it feels like months have passed while also no time at all. What a full and active life we both lead. Such space and love with my friends we lead haha.
Ok, well, you want advice, right? It seems to me that you're not entirely sure what your goals are for next week. Man, I feel you—goals can seem so arbitrarily hard. You never know what's going to get in your way, and you also don’t want that feeling of defeat that comes with asking too much of yourself, as if nothing will ever be enough.
I suppose my advice—take it or leave it, no stress—is firstly to frame your goals as offerings you wish to make. That way, it feels less like a demand. You know, if you ask for something and you don’t accept the possibility of a “no” or a decline, then it becomes a demand.
The second thing is more about looking forward. How do you pick something that you care enough about to hone in on? Yeah, I get that. I suppose you can look at your “Why,” then look at your “Hows” and pick one of them, then think forward. I dunno, I’ve always found this one really difficult, so giving advice feels a bit hypocritical. I more fly by the seat of my pants and am forced to constantly triage.
I guess it comes down to what you feel like you want, the intention behind why you want it, whether it will take as long as you think it will, and if you need to expand or learn in order to get it done, or if you just need to start and map out all the shit you don’t know before you can proceed.
People online will give this really shit advice like “follow your heart” or “plan everything out then go”. But in truth, it lives somewhere in between, in a way that can be chaotically hard to execute.
Another approach might be to come up with something you want, write a short 5–10 word phrase about what you want to accomplish, then try to imagine it. Give it 2–3 “trait” words that guide what it looks like, then try to map it on some paper. I think we sometimes make the mistake of launching into things without a strategic-level map—so maybe that can be helpful?
In any case, I’m sure you’ll figure out what works best for you. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.
As always, love you, man. I always feel so fulfilled spending my time with you.
”
🧓 Elder You Has Some Thoughts
⚠️ Worst Timeline Warning: “Young one, when you let the fires of ambition burn uncontrolled, they’ll turn your safe havens into ash.” 🌟 Best Timeline Encouragement: “My tender storm, your awareness is a song sung by the world itself. Every act of attention is a verse. Every act of offering, a chorus.”
🧠 Narrative Affirmations
I am building a life with deliberate fire and intentional rest.
I am allowed to offer imperfect gifts.
I am still unfolding, and that unfolding is enough.
🌱 Expedition’s Wisdoms
Let Doubt Lead You Back to Proof - Doubt isn’t a dead end—it’s often the breadcrumb trail back to your own hard-earned strength. When it surfaces, trace it back to your progress. Reimagine Work as a Gift, Not a Burden - A to-do list becomes sacred when reframed as an offering. You’re not behind—you’re crafting meaning, not meeting quotas. Play With Tools Like They’re Sacred - Whether a spreadsheet or a sentence, what you build with care becomes reverent. Creative joy doesn’t need permission—it just needs presence. Pause When the Flame Spills Over - Growth without recovery is a wildfire. The work will still be there—your wellbeing may not. Hold the Paradox Instead of Solving It - You can be both overwhelmed and organised, exhausted and accomplished. Growth lives in the dance, not the dominance.
🔍 Pattern Noticed: I’ve noticed a pattern that when I lose rest, I lose my reason. And when I lose my reason, I fill the gap with fire instead of space.
💡 Questions I’m Sitting With:
Where did doubt show up today and what strength or story did it quietly point me toward?
Did I make space for joy, even in the midst of pain, pressure, or imperfection?
What part of my story took a turn today and what meaning lives in that sharp edge?
Did I create or contribute today from a place of offering, not obligation?
Where did I stretch into growth today and did I honour the restoration that sustains it?
🌗 Effort & Practice Reflections
🧍♂️ Personal & Pursuits & Presence
Moved to further my career.
Completed another Learned Wisdom – trying to build a small backlog so I have some space.
Continued reading my friend’s novel draft – showed up in generosity.
Delivered on multiple analytics tickets – restored clarity to messy metrics.
Wrestled the admin beast back into its cage – partial victory
🟢 What I Navigated Well - I navigated an avalanche of competing demands by stepping back into flow where possible—creative work, planning, and structured kindness were my rope lines.
🟡 Where I Lost the Map (But Found Myself) - I lost my way when exhaustion turned into sharpness—my words bristled, and I needed to retreat. That quiet reset reminded me that kindness starts with space.
🔴 The Crash Site Report (With Kind Debrief) - I experienced a setback when a whirlwind week pulled my energy out like loose thread. I unravelled a little. But I re-stitched with sleep, silence, and slow mornings. Next time, I’ll notice the fray sooner.
🏕️ Expedition’s Momentum
💛 Celebrated Effort | 🔵 Wholehearted Effort | 🟢 Gentle Effort | 💚 Deliberate Pause | 🔴 No Spark
| Effort | Category | Complete |
|---|
Not Aligned:
Take Action if Unsure – I hesitated on initiating creative design workflows when I hit a wall, choosing discomfort over decisive action.
Offering Love – My burnout bled into irritability that closed me off from those I care about on the weekend. I wasn’t in a state to offer what I wanted to.
Always Explore and Learn – I avoided engaging with the coding learning I’d intended to begin, despite having carved space for it.
Aligned
Respecting and Empathising – I gave thoughtful space to someone else's novel draft, holding presence and encouragement even while time-poor.
Streamline to Solve Problems – I knocked over a mountain of analytics tasks, clearing the fog to restore visibility and direction.
Self Rivalry – Despite emotional fatigue, I deepened the backlog of Learned Wisdoms, proving to myself that I could create from within the storm.
⏩ Next Expedition’s Intentions
Finish a new Learned Wisdom.
Complete the next Thought Voyager.
Start learning teaching myself how to code in DAX.
📡 Resonant Truths
"Even amid exhaustion and unpredictability, you show up." - Wondering Chris
"Despite the mess, don’t stop. Rebalance. You’ve got things under control." - Wondering Chris
"Be careful not to let the fires of ambition burn things around you." - Wondering Chris
"When everything feels like a big ol’ messy soup—you're tired, exhausted, confused, overwhelmed, and lost, yet somehow also deeply accomplished. Even in that contradiction, you are still enough and capable. Any internal resistance to that truth—whether loud or subtle—is a negative belief at work." - Wondering Chris
Let’s hold this next breath lightly. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s ours.
Until next time,
Chris, the Wonderer
Next Thought Voyager:
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🌌 More Wonderings Beyond This Path – Curiosity Leads, Wonder Follows:
In the Same Vein – Keep Wondering
A New Trail to Wonder
